1. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes♫Usually, when an album’s reviews has references to the Beach Boys or CSN&Y, it simply means that more than one person in the band sings at the same time. But in the case of this uplifting, timeless yet fresh debut, comparisons with the peak of West Coast pop are entirely justified.MP3: Fleet Foxes - White Winter Hymnal

1. MGMT — Time To PretendThe year’s most memorable synthesizer line, lashings of brass, cymbals and drums, a giant psych-pop of a tune, a lyric that seemed both to satirise and aspire to the rock-star lifestyle, and a wonderfully shambolic payoff (“I said, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah!’ ”): the American duo reminded us just how classic but cussedly individual singles should be made.